Former professor Purvis dies; UA, Fulbright years remembered

Continued from Page 4 daughters Pamela and Camille after he and Susan divorced.

In 1982, Sen. Fulbright encouraged Purvis to return to Arkansas to serve as the founding director of the Fulbright Institute of International Relations at the UA in Fayetteville.

Dede Long worked with Purvis at the institute.

“I just feel so grateful that I got to learn from him and be around him,” she said. “Such a storyteller.”

Foley described him as a raconteur, able to tell stories with a cadence that built suspense.

A budding obituary writer for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette took a course from Purvis. It met for three hours every Wednesday night. The obit writer thought it was going to be boring, but it was anything but that. The time flew by.

Foley said he taught one of Purvis’ classes for a summer while Purvis was gone. Foley said he didn’t ever want to do it again.

“For Hoyt, it was like a 75-minute, two-daya-week stand-up routine,” said Foley.

Purvis remained in his position with the institute from 1982 to 2000 and was a professor of journalism, political science and international relations until his retirement from the university in 201

“We all cried when he retired,” said Jordan. “We were all aggrieved. ‘Oh dear, what are we going to do?’”

Purvis had a famously messy office.

“It was like a stop on the tour when visitors came,” said Jordan.

“When he retired and had to move out of his office, it was like a crisis,” said Patsy Watkins, a former UA journalism professor.

The UA’s Special Collections came to the rescue and took Purvis’ papers.

Foley said it took two years for Purvis to clean out his office. Meanwhile, a major renovation was about to begin.

“I look in there, and he’s going through this piece by piece,” Foley said. “Finally, I say, ‘Hoyt, in two days they’re coming to knock the walls down.’

“Hoyt was beloved. I didn’t want to tell him in two days, the wrecking ball is coming down.”

Watkins said Purvis brought an expertise in political affairs to the journalism department, and that attracted more students.

In 1993, President Bill Clinton, who had been a colleague in Sen. Fulbright’s office, appointed Purvis to the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. He served on the board for 10 years, with three of those years as chairman.

In 1997, Hoyt married Marion Matkin, who is now senior director of development at the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design on the UA campus.

Hoyt Purvis was a regular panelist on Arkansas Week on what is now Arkansas PBS, as well as a columnist for the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for twenty years.

Purvis was an avid sports fan, particularly passionate about baseball and the Cardinals and Orioles. For a while, he even hosted a local television program in Fayetteville called “Talkin’ Baseball.”

“He could be seen carrying a stack of newspapers, wearing a baseball hat from his enormous collection, watching a sporting event or the evening news, or listening to Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash or other favorite tunes,” according to the obituary from his wife.